Could budget iPhone go back to Ive's colourful launch of the original iMac?

Could the new budget iPhone hark back to the original design by British genius Jony Ive for the original iMac, available in a rainbow of colours?

Colourful budget iPhone?

That is the kite being flown by Forbes magazine, pointing out that, " Plastic scraps of brightly-colored plastic buttons from a Chinese factory floor corroborate rumors of the look of the purported “Budget iPhone.”

Designer Martin Hajek, " famous for beautifully detailed renderings of mythological Apple products", has produced the representations seen here for Forbes.

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Says writer Anthony Wing Kosner, "It is notable that the candy colors of iOS 7, which seem a bit jarring and discordant in the context of the precision engineered iPhone 5, might make more aesthetic sense on a phone such as this."

The budget iPhone concept, based on months worth of leaks and speculations, would not be Ive's first foray into bright colours.

Ive was in fact the mastermind of the original iMac G3 in 1998, that came in five colours .

"The design was charming, perhaps, in the way that the VW Bug has been, but its bulbous bright colors did not become hallmarks of Apple’s future products," says Kosner.

And of the budget iPhone,” There are conflicting notions of what the hardware of the actual phone will be, colors aside. Most common is the idea that it will have the same screen size as the iPhone 5, just with a chunkier casing. "